A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha

Author:Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2018-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

References:

Civil Appeal Nos. 340-342 and 332-339 of 2015

R.P Kapur v. Sarder Pratap Singh, AIR 1961 SC 1117; Maddhya Pradesh Indutries Ltd. v. Income Tax Officers, AIR 1970 SC 1011; and Jagdish Prasad v. State of Bihar, AIR 1974 SC 911

Article 90(3) of the Constitution

(W) Role of Defense Forces

During the independence of Bangladesh, the armed forces played a pivotal role in the liberation of the country and it has been fully a structured organization officially as the Bangladesh Armed Forces with the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force. The Bangladesh Coast Guard under the Home Ministry plays a stronger role in anti-smuggling, anti-piracy and protection of off-shore resources. Sometimes it provides support to the civil authority on disaster relief and internal security. The Army fought tribal insurgents in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Bangladesh Navy effectively sees off economic aggression of Myanmar in the seas of Bangladesh. Since the late 1980s, the Armed Forces have earned international reputation by working as part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in different countries of the world. They have been recognized as a disciplined and well-trained national institution that can tackle critical national phases.

There is also a dark side to these forces. Some aberrated officers and soldiers participated in the killing of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family and his kith and kins. Some of them committed heinous crimes like the killing of four national leaders in Dhaka Central Jail. Some of them brutally killed President Ziaur Rahman. A section of military officials declared martial laws in 1975 and 1982. Its intelligence force DGFI could not detect the mutiny in the then BDR headquarter now Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), although most of the officers were from the Army. These national forces cannot avoid the responsibility of these dark chapters of our nation. It is hoped that these forces will take the pride of glory by overcoming the incidents mentioned above and command respect from the hearts and minds of the citizenry.

The incident of what has been popularly dubbed as “seven-murder” case in Narayanganj in April 2014 was so brutal and horrific that it shocked the conscience of the nation. Some army personnel deputed to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were directly involved in the killing. The investigating agency could not dare to apprehend them despite confirmation that they were the killers. The Supreme Court rose to the occasion and directed that whoever was involved in the incident should be severely dealt with and directed the investigation agency to proceed with the investigation of the case independently. Thereafter the investigation agency apprehended the army officers and the whole gamut of murder was revealed to the nation. This helped the government to take credit in not interfering with the administration of justice. But if the Supreme Court did not intervene in the matter, public sentiment might have gone to such an extent that it would have been very difficult for them to continue in power for long.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.